A gang caught with Dh75 million worth of Captagon pills planned to sell them in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, police said yesterday.
Six men, all Arabs, were arrested in a three-day police operation dubbed "Autumn Leaves" that seized 1.5 million of the psychotropic pills - the biggest haul this year.
The seizure led to the arrest of a further two men at Al Batha border. The pair had planned to smuggle half a million of the pills to Saudi Arabia, according to Al Ittihad, the Arabic-language sister paper of The National. Police believe the other six planned to sell the remaining million pills in the UAE.
"Seizing such a large amount of psychotropic pills will come as a serious blow to one of the criminal cartels that have specialised in smuggling and trafficking in drugs," said Maj Gen Abdul Jalil Mahdi Al Asmawi, head of Dubai's anti-narcotics department.
"The operation has been the largest in terms of psychotropic seizures this year," he added.
The operation took place from July 25-28.
newsdesk@thenational.ae